A Fantastic Anthology
by PenPatronus
Summary: Short stories with lots of Johnny angst! Story 1: What if, after seeing Ben's distress and impatience, Johnny decided to use Reed's machine on himself? Story 2: Instead of Sue getting stabbed in Rise of the Silver Surfer, Johnny does.
1. Johnny Instead

**Author's Notes: **Instead of publishing a half-dozen little one-shots all around this site, I decided to make an anthology! _Lots of Johnny angst!_

**A Fantastic Anthology**

Story #1: Johnny Instead

PenPatronus

**Summary:** (first movie) What if Johnny, seeing Ben's distress and impatience, experimented with Reed's machine on himself?

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The Baxter Building's elevator shuttered on its axel, throwing Susan Storm against its walls. Lights blinked and metal groaned, and Sue yelled for Reed as she burst through the double doors and sprinted for the stairs. She found Reed, also running, just as they both entered his lab on the top floor. Sue grabbed him by the shoulders in relief, "Oh, I thought you—"

"No, but—" Both Reed and Sue pivoted as the doors to the cosmic storm machine opened.

A body tumbled through a wake of confetti caused by a Fantastic Four uniform burned to ashes. The living fire that covered the Human Torch didn't extinguish but continued to cause bloody welts and searing third-degree burns on his naked chest, neck, legs and arms. Johnny Storm looked at his sister, forced his trademark smile and with a painful look said, "Help…?"

"Johnny!" Sue screeched in her sternest Big Sister voice. She went into a sprint towards him, but he put up a flaming hand to stop her. "Johnny, what were you _thinking_?"

Johnny fell forward onto one knee. "Sis, get back, I can't control this—fire out first, yell at me after!" Sue, still new to her powers, looked around for a fire extinguisher before putting a force field around Johnny. The fire quickly ate up all of the oxygen, and went out.

Johnny stood, started to speak, but his cocky grin crumbled. Pain reached his eyes, and Sue gasped as he completely collapsed, the odd flames disappearing. Reed tore his white lab coat off and threw it to Sue who wrapped it around Johnny's midsection. Johnny hissed in pain as Sue gently maneuvered his head into her lap. His voice was raspy and dry. "I did this because—you've seen Pebbles—" Johnny rolled onto his side and spit blood onto the floor. Sue passed a look of panic to Reed, who immediately got to his feet and ran to call an ambulance. "He can't bear to be like that so I…" Johnny's voice disappeared like his flames.

"I can't believe you …crazy…" Sue shook her head in disbelief and then leaned over to place a kiss on her little brother's forehead. "You could've been killed!"

Johnny seemed to be realizing that as well. Fear was in his features. He reached for Sue's hand as the pain continued to wrack his body, and she held him close. "I'm not sure if we're quite up to past tense yet, sis…"

"What—"

"The paramedics are coming!" Reed called from behind them.

"Which hospital will they take him to?" asked Sue.

"Right to Central, the ER a couple blocks down!"

"Ok. Johnny, can you stand?" Sue shook her brother when she realized that his eyes were closed. "Johnny? _Johnny_!"

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Johnny Storm heard the beeping, recognized it as a heart monitor, and decided, in his sleep, that now would probably be a good time to open his eyes. His eyes did open, and after a few moments he was able to see, and a few moments following that he discovered that he was in a curtained corner of an ICU, hanging in traction so that nothing could aggravate his injuries. He probably should've been concerned that his own powers had nearly killed him, but the only thing Johnny noticed was that he was alone. "Sue?" he whispered at the curtain. When his sister didn't promptly appear, he called her name louder. A deep foreboding sped up his heart. He was in the hospital, and the rest of the Fantastic Four were not. Part of Johnny was insulted that they didn't care, but deep down he knew that there had to be a good reason for his sister's absence.

A nurse came in and found Johnny wiggling his way out of the traction. He didn't stop to flirt, didn't let the security that she called stop him, didn't stop running until he was back in a uniform and on the top floor of the Baxter Building.

Even in the complete darkness, only interrupted by sparks of electricity from the equipment, Johnny could see that Reed's lab had been destroyed. The Human Torch turned on his flames to light the room, wincing at the pain it caused, and he found glass on the floor. The windows were broken.

His flame must have drawn attention, because when he went out on the balcony, there was a missal coming at him.

**The End**

(storyline continues as it does in the movie)


	2. Going Down Fighting

**Author's Notes:** This story shows an alternate universe where Johnny gets stabbed instead of Sue at the end of "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Siler Surfer." It's probably been done by someone already, so I apologize if I accidentally plagiarized (well, actually, I don't really care—just don't yell at me). Please review.

**Going Down Fighting**

PenPatronus

With both his might and the power of the board, Doom launched a spear at the Silver Surfer.

"_Norrin_!" Sue Storm leapt from her third of the Fantasticar and sprinted into the scene. Accessing her powers, she raised a force field, forgetting that the board was stronger than her. Firelight flared in her peripheral vision.

Flamed on and flying, Johnny Storm went into a down spiral and dove between his sister and the spear heading for her chest. His powers were no match for the board's either. It went through _his_ chest instead, and the impact spun him into a lamppost before he slammed onto the concrete road. His flames spurted a final time and the heat dissolved the spear into liquidated metal that mixed with bright red blood. Gasping, Johnny tried to get to his feet, but found that his limbs wouldn't cooperate. He collapsed to his knees, then to his side, and then lay on his back, convulsing.

Sue ran towards her brother. "_JOHNNY_!"

"Careful, Sue, don't touch him!" Reed was suddenly there. He grabbed his fiancé around the waist and held her back. Sobbing, tears spurting from her eyes, Sue fought him with all of her strength.

Ben thundered past them and kneeled beside Johnny. "Aww, kid…"

"Hiya, Pebbles," Johnny could only gasp in response.

"Well, isn't _this_ a sight." The Fantastic Four looked up to see Doom hovering above them, his arms folded at his chest and his chin tilted upwards in satisfaction. "My cocky almost-brother-in-law getting what he deserves. This couldn't get any better." Sue wrenched herself away from Reed and let out a shriek as she shot a field of energy at Doom that he simply dodged. Victor cackled and, satisfied that he wasn't going to be bothered again, glided away on the board.

"Sue—" Johnny called to his sister. "Sue…"

Tearing herself away from Doom, Sue hurried over to Ben and Johnny. Her boots splashed in the blood. "Oh, Johnny…" She held out her hands, but Johnny pulled away from her.

"I don't—don't look, Sues…" He coughed and spit blood onto the road.

"Shhh, Johnny, I think I can help." After a steadying breath, and a nod at Reed, Sue placed the palms of her hands over Johnny's chest and, after careful concentration, managed to coordinate her force fields and use them to stop the bleeding.

"An invisible band-aid," Ben muttered.

"No…" Johnny murmured, wincing from the pressure. "You can't stay here, you have to get—get the board." Johnny inhaled and exhaled wetly through his teeth, his lips tense and parted only slightly.

Reed and Ben looked at each other. "I'm not sure what we can do, Johnny," said Sue. "It's going to be hard to get to Doom."

"The car…"

"Crashed," Reed said.

"We'll have to find some sort of aircraft," grumbled Ben. "We won't be able to force Doom to the ground."

"There's not enough time." Johnny looked up at his sister. "Sue…give me your power…and show me how to control the force field."

"Johnny, Johnny no—I'm not sure you can handle a power transfer," Reed said as he kneeled beside them. "I know they've been painful enough already."

Johnny didn't deny that. "If I can just hold the bleeding, and then use all four powers, I can try to get Doom."

"Johnny, no way, we have to get you to a hospital," Sue insisted.

"Johnny, we don't know what that could do to you—you might not survive long enough—"

"The _world's_ not going to survive if I don't try, Reed!"

There was a fire in Johnny's eyes that had nothing to do with his powers.

"Johnny," Sue whispered as she shook her head. Her expression morphed from desperation, to realization, to unfettered awe. "Johnny…I'm so proud of you."

"Yeah, kid," Ben rumbled. "Look at you."

Reed bowed his head for a moment before making eye contact with Johnny and whispering, "Ok…Ready?"

Johnny closed his eyes and concentrated on his breathing for several moments. When he opened them, they were set and determined and without fear. If it weren't for the blood, he might've fooled them. "Do it." Ben put his hand on Johnny's right shoulder, Reed his left, and Sue's powers were transferred when she kissed Johnny's forehead.

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Doom was defeated, but Johnny fell, flaming like a shooting star until he fell unconscious. And then he was just a limp body spiraling towards the unmerciful earth. Sue sobbed and plastered the tips of her fingers to her lips. Ben clenched his fists as he watched helplessly, but Reed had to turn away. Sue buried her face in his chest.

Suddenly a gasp came from Ben, and Sue and Reed looked up. A flash of silver erupted as the Surfer, united with his board, soared towards Johnny. Both forms went out of view behind a building, leaving the three friends to wait. There was silence, and darkness…and then the windy sound of the approaching Surfer.

Norrin appeared around the building with a partially visible, rocky, stretched-out Johnny in his arms. Surges of Victor's electricity burst from his body.

Ben reached him first and the moment he touched Johnny, his flesh rippled back into rock. He took Johnny's feet, and Reed took his head. All of their powers were returned when Susan slid to her knees between them and they lowered him into her arms. "_Johnny_!" Sue whispered, shaking him. "Johnny?"

"Hey, look," Reed said. He touched Johnny's shoulder, and all were surprised when their powers didn't switch again. Reed looked at the Surfer, aghast. He took to his board, and disappeared into the falling sky, headed for The Destroyer.

Ben pressed his hands to his head. "Does that mean he's—"

"He's what…?" came Johnny's voice. His eyes opened and he tried to read Sue's face.

"You're ok!" Sue hugged him. The heat from his body dried her tears.

"Your powers appear to be cured, but…" Reed, who could tell that Johnny was far from all right, shook his head.

"Susie…Susie, easy on him." Ben used one of his fingers to tug on her elbow. When she looked up, Ben cocked his head at a point beside her. "Look."

When the force fields down in unconsciousness, pent up blood once again billowed out from Johnny's body. Johnny arched his back and was unable to prevent a cry as pain overwhelmed him. Electricity burned his raw wounds, and his organs began to shut down. Johnny struggled for breath.

"Hold still…" Sue gently ordered. Drawing on her power, she placed her hands once again above his chest, but suddenly Johnny snatched up them with his own.

"No," he hissed. "It's too late, Sues…It's too much…." He let go of her as more electricity wracked his body.

When Johnny stopped wincing and groaning from the pain, Sue spoke, "Wha—What do you mean it's too much…you can't…" Sue's lips trembled.

Johnny was looking at some unseen spot behind them all. He frowned. "I can feel it. It's too much. S—Sue? I'm so cold…"

Goosebumps of fear erupted on Sue's skin. "Johnny look at me."

He only blinked. His breaths were uneven. The blood wouldn't stop.

"Johnny?" Reed added his voice.

Ben leaned closer. "Kid? Kid, come _on_!"

"Johnny?" Sue shook him, violently. "_Johnny_." Her voice broke. "Johnny please…"

Johnny's eyes met Sue's. The look lasted only a moment, but he put all of himself into it.

She blinked, and during that blink his eyes had closed, his breaths had stopped, his heart had stilled. Johnny went limp in his sister's arms, and all of the heat disappeared from the world. The world had been saved, but the Fantastic Four was over.

**The End**


End file.
